Best Laid Schemes
by Paper Lilly Webs
Summary: The best laid schemes, of mice and me, often go awry. -Neither side knows how the Grievers arrived, both blaming the other because what else are they supposed to do? Personally, you think it was an accident. That, or a government conspiracy to diminish the population. You can never tell with governments; especially the one that was in charge when all this started.- Warning: DaveKat
1. What If I Were to Die?

**A/N**: So, I am a terrible person: I should not be starting another story, but here I am. I don't know if I should continue this or now, so your guy's opinions?

Oh, and a quick warning: The cover picture is a lie. I will most likely sadstuck this.

Ciao for now!

~Webs

* * *

"They didn't hurt you too much, did they?"

"I said I'm fine, fuckass." He mumbles, red eyes watching your pale fingers dance across his arm. You nimbly wrap the bandage around the gash across his upper arm; you wonder if he can even distinguish pain from numbness anymore. It been so long since either of you _haven't_ been hurt.

"How long before you're expected back?" You keep your face blank, dreading his return to his own people.

"I have a couple hours."

"How many of you are out?"

"Just me, Tav and Aradia. They only sent the rustbloods to this sector for today."

"They won't come looking for you?" He shakes his head.

"They won't." You don't say anything else before kissing him, full on the mouth. He doesn't hesitate before kissing back, uninjured hand coming up to wrap around the back of your head to pull you closer. It's been too long since you've seen each other, too long wondering if the other was still alive.

You two pull away after a moment, the troll resting his forehead on yours. "Shit, Dave." He whispers, closing his eyes.

"I know, man. I know." You mumble back, watching him through your shades. The rings under his eyes are darker, you note, gray skin a little too pale to be healthy. For someone so high on the social ladder, he really needs to watch his health more.

He leaves you with a small nuzzle before moving back enough to look you over. You crouch silently, letting him make sure you're in one piece, used to his gaze flicking scrutinizingly over you. It's become routine the last few months, and though you wish it wasn't necessary, you kinda like watching him worry over you; it shows he cares. A lot.

"You're not hurt either, right?" You shake your head.

"I've been lucky around the Grievers. Maybe a bruise here and there, but they've been clean kills." You pause, eyeing his new bandage. "You're lucky it didn't bite you. Why'd you let it get so close to you?" He shrugs.

"Aradia was struggling, and I let my guard slip trying to get hers."

"You're too noble for your own good, you know that, right?" He manages a smile smile.

"I won't apologize for wanting to keep my species alive, Dave."

"Mm, whatever. As long as you're safe." You kiss his cheek, standing and offering down a hand to him. He takes it, pulling himself to his feet and shifting the hand into your other, weaving his gloved fingers with yours. You've always marveled how, in this fucking jacked up world, your two hands can fit so perfectly. Sometimes you reckon there's nothing more perfect than that.

"You're doing it again." You look up, masking your surprise behind your poker face.

"What?"

"You're staring at our hands again. You're always doing that." You smirk.

"I can't help it, man." You bring up his hand, keeping it in yours as you kiss the back of it lightly. "You're just too perfect." You grin as he blushes, him starting to tug you forward down a familiar, crumbling alley.

"Shut up, asshole," he grumbles, you following in his wake.

You catch up to him soon enough, matching paces and taking out one of your swords again. You're on alert again, wary eyes flickering around every darkened empty space of your surroundings, knowing the Grievers could be anywhere. Karkat is just as tense and alert as you are, careful not to miss anything. Like hell if you're going to lose each other.

You both move quickly out of Sector four and into the No Man's land between Sectors four and six. No one from either side would follow you here; they think it's desolate desert for three miles, hidden behind chain-linked fences with plastic slats, revealing nothing of what's inside.

Karkat pulls a key from a chain around his neck, unlocking the only gate within the five-mile stretch of fence. You watch his nimble gray fingers twist the rusted key, then push the gate open, leading you into the almost-rainforest the two of you have created. You grin as you follow him in, closing the gate and latching it behind you.

The young troll immediately goes over to the water spigot, connected to about a hundred hoses, and turns it on, watering the entire garden at once. This is the only place either of you have found running water since the outbreak, and instead of telling either of your respective sides about it, Karkat proposed a garden. You'd laughed at him, of course, until he presented his collection of seeds he'd picked up every now and then. He still does it, even after all available space has been taken up.

Oh, speaking of which... "Hey, Vantas." He looks over at you, hand on the spigot. "Look what I found yesterday." You hold up a packet of daisy seeds that you'd found in Jade's old stuff. Whoops; better not think about Jade.

He stares at you for a long moment, then strides over to you and kisses you on the mouth. You grin, kissing him back, before he pulls away again. "Where'd you find these?"

"'Remember I told you about Jade? All of her garden shit from before... all this?" He nods, grinning.

"You asked, right?" You wince internally.

"'Course. I couldn't tell her why, but she agreed."

"Thank you, Dave."

"No problemo, Señor Vantas." He snorts, releasing you.

"You're so weird, Strider." He takes the sees, inspecting them for a moment, then goes over to a small, steel crate by the spigot, unlocking it with a code and placing the packet inside before closing it again. He won't be able to plant anything for another month or two, and it'd be safer keeping the seeds here than back at his camp.

He straightens and goes about his routine of checking over all of his plants, reverently stroking the leaves. You watch him kneel next to the ferns, a slight smile on his face as he brushes his fingers over them, and can't help but smile as well, just a bit. You think plants are the only thing he loves more than you.

Leaning against the fence, you cross your arms, relaxed and content; Grievers can get in here. They wouldn't even try; not with all the plants. They'd done a pretty good job of killing everywhere they made a nest, ridding much of the planet's surface of green. The creatures stick to previously-populated areas, since they were almost clear of plant life anyway, leaving places like the Rain Forests untouched.

Neither side knows how the Grievers arrived, both blaming the other because what else are they supposed to do? Personally, you think it was an accident. That, or a government conspiracy to diminish the population. You can never tell with governments; especially the one that was in charge when all this started.

Ah, and all those conspiracy theories are probably because of Bro, but what the hell; they're probably true.

"Hey, Dave." You shake yourself back into reality, looking over at Karkat. He's still crouched by the ferns, but he's frowning now.

"Yeah?"

"What if I were to die?"

* * *

**A/N**: So, should I continue?


	2. Maybe I'm Off My Game

**A/N**: I feel like an idiot now. I've had this chapter up on AO3 for a couple weeks, and hadn't realized I didn't put it up here. I'll have chapter three up right after this one.

Thanks for the support so far!

~Webs

* * *

"You fine getting home from here?" He nods, hand on his sickle hilt.

"I'm meeting up with Aradia and Tavros at the border of Three and Four." You slowly map out the rout in your head; that's not too far from where the two of you currently are; he should be fine.

"I can still walk you there," you offer.

"What, and risk them seeing you? No way! I'll be fine. I know how to handle myself." Chuckling quietly, you pull him forward into a hug.

"I know, I know. I worry about you though, Kitten." Even though you can't see his face, you're sure he's rolling his eyes.

"I was doing fine before I met you, you know."

"Hey, ey, don't get cocky. That'll quite literally be the death of you." You hold him a little tighter.

"I know. I won't." He hugs you back, nuzzling into your shoulder. "I'll see you in a month, then."

"That's too long," you grumble, though know neither of you can do anything about it.

After several minutes, you expect him to push away, but instead, he stays there, hand clenching the back of your shirt silently. He's thinking; you can tell by the sideways tilt of his head, cocked just slightly to the left. You don't interrupt him, letting him speak his mind when he's ready. For a troll, he's pretty predictable if you know what to look for.

"You know..." he begins, shifting his weight to his other foot. "you never answered my question: What if I were to die?"

"I'd blow up the entire fucking town."

"Dave, I'm serious." He pulls away to look at you.

"So am I." And you are; you'd murder anyone that hurt him, even if they were human, and if it's a Griever's fault, well, you'd kill them all. And if to do so, you have to blow up the city, so be it.

The troll in front of you sighs, shaking his head a little. "You're ridiculous, Strider. You're going to get yourself killed by your own people."

"If it'd save you, I'd let the Grievers rip me apart." He has the fucking audacity to laugh at your words, causing your poker face to slip into a frown. "Karkat, I'm not kidding."

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever, dude." He kisses your cheek, but you feel slightly hurt. Does he not believe you would do that for him? "Anyway, I should go. Tav'll flip his shit if I'm not there on time." You sigh deeply.

"Be safe."

"I will."

"I'm serious. Karkat, look at me." You lift his chin to make him look at you. "I know how you get when you're relaxed; you get sloppy. Please don't get sloppy." He rolls his eyes again, looking rather affronted.

"I don't get sloppy," he mumbles irritably.

"Yes, you do. And I'd come with you to prove it if I could, but I can't, so get to Tavros and Aradia quickly, alright?"

"Fine, whatever." He pulls his chin away with a grumble, and you sincerely wish you had fallen in love with someone who actually listened to you.

Realizing he's watching you, you frown. "What?"

"I'm really bad at this, aren't I?" He sighs, putting his hand around the back of your neck as he stands on his toes to kiss you gently. "I'm sorry I'm such an idiot." It's fine, Kitkat, alright? I just don't want you being stupid, especially since you're going alone."

"I know, I understand. You be safe too. I don't want to have to go to hell to beat the shit out of you for leaving me."

"I _always_ keep safe," you waggle your eyes suggestively, waggling your eyebrows. He flushes and slaps your shoulder repeatedly.

"You asshole!" You snicker, shielding yourself from his blows.

"I'm just kidding, Kitten!" You continue laughing, grabbing his wrists and stilling his hands as you lean down to peck his lips.

He makes an indignant noise, and you can feel his glare for a moment, but then he relaxes, and you smirk as he closes his eyes. So predictable. He mumbles something and you feel him smile against your lips; you don't even bother trying to figure out what he's saying, knowing it's in Alternian.

"You know..." you mumble as you pull away, just slightly. "it's not fair for you to say stuff in a language I can't understand." He chuckles, sliding his hands down until his fingers are interlaced with yours, moving them down to let your arms rest. "I want to know what you're saying."

"You will never know, blondie. My words will forever remain a secret."

"Yoooou aaaasshoooole," you whine.

"Shut up, Dave." He pecks the corner of your mouth, then releases your hands and backs up a step. "I promise I'll be careful as long as you do."

"Okay, okay, I promise." You offer him a small smile, which he returns. "And make sure your sickle doesn't break again if you run into platebacks, 'aight?"

"I won't run into platebacks; they don't come into this Sector often."

"But they could; 'remember what happened to Eridan?"

"I'd rather not. I had to clean up that shit."

"Yeah, he really made a mess of things didn't he?"

"And besides: those were Spinies, not platebacks."

"'Don't care. I still want you to be careful."

"I will. Don't worry."

"Fine, I trust you." You kiss his forehead once, then give him a gentle shove. "Go on, get going."

"Alright, alright!" He turns and starts walking away, turning the nearest corner. You watch him long after he's disappeared, hands in your pockets.

You wish you could go with him, but with all the hostilities between trolls and humans, even being in this Sector right now is dangerous. You wonder if the threat of the Grievers would be as bad if you and Karkat's people worked together instead of against.

Sighing again, you turn, heading back to Sector five, where the human base is. You'd rather not have to walk through Sector six to get to said base, but Karkat would kill you if you tried to cut through his garden; you do not want to face his wrath for crushing any of his precious plants.

You communicator goes off in your pocket, and you pause your walking to answer it, bringing it to your ear. "Strider here."

"Dave, where are you?" John is on the other end, sounding positively panicked.

"In Sector Six, where I'm supposed to be."

"You were supposed to be back an hour ago! Everyone's flipping their shit!" _Fuck_. You quickly check your watch, and realize you'd completely lost track of time.

"Well, I'm alive, Egbert, so tell everyone to calm down; I just lost track of time."

"That's not like you, Dave. I'm worried about you."

"You shouldn't be. I'm completely fine." You walk faster, feeling guilty for making everybody freak out; you don't like lying to all of them about Karkat, and what you're doing when you're supposed to be patrolling.

"But you've been acting funny the past few months. And I'm not the only one who's noticed." You sigh, and rub the bridge of your nose. _Of course other people have noticed, Egderp_, you think to yourself. _You're the _last_ to notice anything._ "How far away are you? Did you run into any Grievers?"

"No, there've been clear roads, and I'm about ten minutes from base."

"Oh, that's good. Dinner's going to be ready by then, though, so I'll save you some, okay?"

"Thanks, John. I'd really not be interested in the dregs, would I?" He laughs his snorting giggle.

"I thought you might say that. Well, I better let you go; 'can't be distracting you, can I?"

"Hey, I can multitask."

"Yeah, yeah. Sure, you can. Bye, Dave."

"See you soon, Egbert." You wait for him to hang up, then pull the communicator away from your ear, staring at it for a long moment, sighing.

You hate lying to John the most; he... assumes you two are more than just best friends, but you don't see him like that; you see Karkat like that. You wish you could tell John you're taken, but he'd ask you by who, and there aren't enough humans for you to make someone up. And the last thing you want to do is hurt John, but telling him about Karkat... that'd break him.

Something growls behind you and you freeze, realizing you'd stopped in the middle of a dilapidated cross street. At first you think it's a Griever, but the growl is the wrong pitch, and if it had been a Griever, you'd be dead by now, meaning...

"On guard, human." You whip around just in time with your sword to slice through four dice flung at your head. _Vriska_. You hiss at the sight of the eye-patched bitch. Normally, you aren't allowed to fight trolls, 'cause that'd man direct war on the other species, but Vriska is different; she is no longer allied with the trolls. "Ooh, it's little Davey. How've you been, Strider?"

You paste a smirk on your face, anger boiling under your skin. "I've been well. Go about you, Spider Bitch?"

"I as well." You being circling each other, you with your sword and her with her dice; although they're small, you know they can do a lot of damage; Karkat has the scars to prove it.

It's this thought that sends you springing forward to attack first. She's just as quick as you, so she manages to almost completely dodge the blow, your blade nicking her shoulder. She hisses, chucking several dice T you, but the throw is weak and sloppy, meaning you leap easily out of the way and slice your sword across her arm, cutting it deeply.

Despite this triumph, the fight is over already. Vriska makes a break for it Ito the nearet building and you know better than to follow. While Vriska is shit at long range and close quarters, she's a pro as using interior surroundings, such as the abandoned hospital into which she has just disappeared. You know you don't stand a chance, so high tail the fuck out of there, heading even more quickly towards your vase.

This time, you keep a wary eye out for anything that would consider attacking you.

* * *

You watch your hand, twirling your knife an avoiding looking at Rose as she approaches your perch on the only not-boarded up window on the base's sill. She knew you'd be here.

"Dave, were need to talk."

"Oh? Whatever about?" You still don't look up, and she knows you're hiding something.

"A troll was spotted in your sector."

"Huh. 'Must have missed him."

"You seem to be doing that a lot lately." She sits on the window sill across from you. "Care to explain?"

"Maybe I'm off my game, Lalonde. That can happen."

"Unlikes, both considering your innate prowess and your in the practice room; something's been wrong for months now, and I can't be the only who's noticed." You sigh, stop twirling your knife, and store it away in the breast pocket of your vest.

"Shit, I dunno, Lalonde." Maybe the world is fucked up? Maybe my innate abilities aren't meant for fighting trolls?" You immediately regret saying this, watching something flash across her usually poised expression.

"Do you want to run that by me again?"

"I just mean that I think we should be working together to defeat the Grievers." Well, since you're obviously already dug your grave, you might as well throw the wake as well.

"Dave, I think you need to discuss these thoughts with Dirk." Your jaw tightens and you look out the window, away from Rose.

"I'm not talking to Bro."

"I think you should; you obviously need to rethink your priorities."

"My priorities do not need to be rethought," you hiss. "clenching your teeth and thoroughly breaking your cool. "Maybe it's you who needs to rethink yours." You swing yourself through the window before she can respond, landing in the dust courtyard three stories down, and you can just imagine Rose's face as she watches you a little-more-than storm off.

Well, you may have just completely blown your and Karkat's cover. Shit, Rose is going to go straight to Bro, isn't she? You can possibly argue your case with Harley, but not with Bro, not after what happened with Jade...

You curse under your breath, walking quickly for the mews where Bro keeps the messenger crows, hoping Karkat remembers how to catch one and send it back.

You hop up cement steps quickly, clutching the hilt of one of your swords, because sure enough, Bro is waiting at the top, sword out and ready to strife.

For the first time since this clusterfuck started, you don't intend to win.


	3. It's You Who Can't See The Truth

**A/N**: Please keep in mind I wrote much of this while watching Schindler's List, so it might be depressing. I don't think it's too bad, but it's pretty evident I'd been watching a Holocaust movie ^_^'

* * *

"You could have easily killed it Dave." You stand in the middle of the mews, hand gripped tightly around your sword hilt as Bro circles you, eyes completely hidden, though it's not like you'd be able to read them anyway. "I know you at least saw it, if not met it face to face." Starlet, your favorite crow, squawks warningly at Bro as his circle slowly gets tighter around you. "And Rose tells me you think we should be working alongside them?"

You remain silent, eyes on Starlet, knowing anything you say will be the wrong answer.

"It's funny you should think that, Dave, because the rest of us all think we should rid ourselves of the problem completely. I thought you'd be one of my fondest supporters on that."

You clench your jaw, trying your hardest not to break pokerface and snarl at him. "1942," you say abruptly, surprising Bro into silence. "Hitler launched the 'final plan', the last stage of the Holocaust, and killed over six thousand people a day, including Jews, Gypsies, the disabled, ill, insane and inadequate. You're suggesting we do the same thing to trolls, who are like us in almost every way?"

Bro stares at you for a long moment, then has the audacity to chuckle. "You've thought about this a lot then, haven't you?" With a sigh, he rests the top of his blade in the stone of the floor. "I see your point, but this is differ-"

"How the hell is this different?! You're suggesting genocide!" In a second, Bro's sword is pointed to your throat.

"It's rude to interrupt people when they're talking, Davey. Didn't I raise you better?"

"God, I wish you had."

He growls quietly. "This is different in that we aren't considering it because we think ourselves above trolls, or in any way superior. We're considering it because we. Won't. _Survive_ if they do."

"What the fucking hell turned us all into killers? The Grievers? No. You know I think it is? I think you guys _want_ to hate them; you were all just waiting for an excuse. Hell, I probably was too! But that doesn't matter, 'cause now I see that this. Is. _Wrong_."

"Listen to yourself, Dave. Next thing, you'll be telling us we should be keeping Grievers as pets." You snarl at him.

"I'm saying you're fucking blind to think killing all the trolls with solve the main problem! Or have you forgotten that as well? You know, what if they're just as scared as we are? Just trying to survive like we are? Have the same emotions, same wants and needs, and striving for the same thugs we are?"

"And what is that, Dave? WHat are we striving for?"

"Reprieve. Release. A fucking break from all this bullshit. Peace."

"Peace? _Peace?_ The trolls don't want _peace_. If they wanted peace, why would they still be attacking us?"

"'Cause we keep attacking _them!_"

He slams the hilt of his sword to your chest, before shoving you against the nearest all; Starlet screeches again. "You're saying this mess is _our_ fault?!" You eyes widen behind your shades, quickly mapping the explosion of emotion that's just crossed your brother's face.

"N-No, I'm not sayi- You know what? I am. I wasn't too young to remember we're the assholes that attacked first. They hadn't done a fucking thing to us except ask to share our world, and how did we repay them? The moment things started going wrong for us, we blamed them and attacked them."

You see Bro opens his mouth, whether to retort or agree, perhaps you'll never know, because just then, Jade bursts into the room, looking excited and drinking in the scene in the mews before passing it off as another strife, holding her rifle at her side. "We caught a troll."

Bro is off you in a second, the three of you rushing down to the courtyard where it looks like the entire human camp has gathered, into a ring around what you assume is the troll. You pause on the outside of the ring, watching Jade and Bro force their way to the center, and you debate running, but...

Trolls aren't catchable; at least, they're not supposed to be. They'd rather commit suicide than be taken by humans; you'd seen them do just that when faced with capture, so what made this one okay with it?

Steeling yourself, you slip into the crowd, bending around people. As you approach, you hear a bit of the conversation between Bro and the troll.

"... see Dave."

"How do you know Dave? What do you want with him?"

"I said I won't talk to anyone until I see Dave." Recognizing that voice, you sprint until you freeze as you pass the last line of humans, halting three feet from Bro, and five from the troll Jake has his rifle pointed at, wicked grin telling you he's the one who caught him and forced him to his knees on the grass.

Karkat looks up at you, a flicker of relief passing over his features for a moment, before he's gone back to his usual scowl. Bro looks at you as well, mapping your own expression, and you know you've blown your cover now.

"Well, Dave's here now, so start talking." Karkat ignores Bro completely, giving you a look you know well, and immediately you fix your poker face. "The only reason you're not dead yet is because you said you had information."

He again ignores Bro. "Dave, they've started migrating. They're coming." You tense at his words, hand instinctively going to your sword hilt. It's not time for the migration yet; you had months before then.

"What's migrating? Who's coming?" You push past Bro and kneel next to Karkat, starting to undo the rope tying his hands. Jake raises his gun warningly, and you receive yelps and hisses of surprise and anger from the crowd, but ignore those completely as you look him over for injuries, wiping a bit of blood from his lip.

"You alright?" you as quietly as he rubs his wrists.

"'Fucker hit me in the chest with his gun," he jerks his head at Jake. "but otherwise, I'm fine." You send a quick glare at Jake, before standing and helping Karkat to his feet, and earn more shouts of protest.

Bro is staring at you openly, as if it's really that surprising when you take his hand to start leading him through the crowd toward the infirmary. The humans part easily, not wanting to even touch Karkat, and by the look on his face, that hurts him, so you squeeze his hand encouragingly.

"Hey, where the fuck do you think you're going?" Bro flashsteps to in front of you, raising his sword to tell you he isn't afraid of hurting you or Karkat. Just in case, you pull Karkat closer to you, and step until you're in front of him completely.

"To fix him up," you say, face blank.

"Why would you care what happens to the troll?"

"Why wouldn't I?" Karkat presses his hand to in between your shoulder blades, telling you to calm down. He knows you have as few qualms with fighting Bro as he does with you.

"Dave, I think it's time to explain how you know a high blood."

"Mutant," you correct in a hiss. Bro raises an eyebrow.

"What was that?"

"I said he's a mutant." Bro's face goes slack, as if everything connects now.

"Dave..." Karkat tightens his grip on your hand when you start growling at him. How dare Bro use that tone with you? As if he actually understands what's going on?

"Dave, back off," Karkat whispers to you, and Bro hears, eyebrows raising past his shades when you obey the troll.

"How'd you do that, Rusty?" Karkat winces at the nickname as you snarl. "Hey, ey, calm your tits, 'lil man."

"Don't call him that," you hiss again.

"I was just asking how he got you to calm down like that; I've never been able to do that."

"He has to trust you, you fucking asswipe," Karkat speaks up, stepping around you a little, glaring at Bro. He glares back after he figures out what he means.

"Oh, and he trusts you?"

"Without a doubt."

"And how is that, Dave?" He turns his attention to you, and you suddenly remember you all have an audience. The remains of the entire human race are staring at you like you're just torn down their entire world, and in a way, you have. You're holding hands with a troll, defending against your only family. They've never been more confused.

They've never felt more betrayed.


	4. Because I Know We're All The Same

**A/N**: I am so sorry about the late updates D: Especially since I only have two chapters left. I lost a lot of motivation for this, but I have it back, and will hopefully finish this within the month. This chapter is shit, just warning you; I don't remember exactly where I wanted to go with this, so that's way it's not only taken so long, but also why it's rather terrible. I am so sorry.

Ciao for now!

~Webs

* * *

Bro's eyes continue to pierce yours as you sit across from him, not straying from yours even for a split second. You glare back, just slightly, and you know only he could be able to tell the difference between this and your normal expression.

Karkat's eyes dart between the two of you quickly every few minutes, unnerved by all the tense silence and seemingly stoic expressions. He's refrained from holding your hand, but you can tell he wants to; neither of you make the move, knowing it'd set Bro off, and that's definitely not something you want in this situation.

"So." Bro finally breaks the silence, causing Karkat to jump a little from his seat next to you. "You guys wanna tell me what all this fuss is about?"

"Which fuss? The fuss of you kidnapping my boyfriend, or the fuss of the fact that we're about to be overrun with Griever Queens?" Bro's expression goes steely.

"Boyfriend?"

"You didn't guess?" You roll your eyes. "Well, I guess it's matesprit, if you want to use that terminology. But that's beside the point; before this gets all Romeo and Juliet-y, we need to talk about the fuss I mentioned second."

"And how did this creature become so important as to even use their terms of romance?" Bro pretty much ignores you, turning a full-blown glare at Karkat; any chance of Bro being happy for you for having found someone flies out the window like a teenage delinquent would his clock on a monday morning.

"Bro, would you for fuck's sake listen to me? We. Have. A. _Problem_. One we can't fix as separate species."

"Aw, look, you want to work together with them. When's the marriage?"

"Hopefully after we GET OUT OF THIS CLUSTERFUCK!" You don't know when you get to your feet, but you know you have when you realize both Karkat and Bro are looking up at you, and Bro's expression has been graced with a flicker of surprise. "Bro, _listen_ to me. If we don't act fast and get help from the trolls we will _all_ die. Have you ever even seen a Queen? They're bigger than this room! And there's two Grievers for every Queen. Theres, what, eight thousand Grievers in this city alone? Do the math. We can't win."

"And I'm just supposed to believe this?" You growl, getting another surprised look from Bro.

"Yes! You are! I'm trying to fucking warn you all that we're all about to be wiped out unless we work together and you're sitting here more fucking concerned that I got a boyfriend! Granted, he's another species, but fuck that!"

Bro gets slowly to his feet, growling as well. "Davide Elizabeth Strider. You've been keeping a relationship with the _enemy_ secret from me for who knows how long, and you expect me to believe that you're actually concerned about the rest of us? That you care what happens to us? That I should trust _troll_ intelligence?!"

"Who the fuck said it was troll?! I figured it out _with_ Karkat! And can we take in account for a moment that Karkat took this information to _us_ first, not them?"

"It could be a trap, Dave. Beep beep meow here could be leading you on."

"I would never fucking do that to Dave!" Karkat jumps to his feet, snarling and clenching his fists. "I'll prove it any way you want! I'd gladly die for him, and I know he'd say the same of me."

"I would," you speak up, glaring at Bro. "And if the only way to save him is to go through you, I'll do it, because you've made it pretty clear what's more important to you."

"Then tell me what's more important to me."

"Proving that the trolls were the one's who caused all this. That you're more concerned about proving them liars than taking the precaution to save our species."

"Dave, you're suggesting us teaming up with the creatures we've been fighting for decades."

"To stop the creatures we've been fighting for even longer! What part of Griever _Queens_ is not making any fucking sense to you?!"

"The part where you haven't brought any proof to the table." You let out a frustrated almost-scream, grabbing Karkat's hand and starting for the door. Bro of course sticks his arm out to stop you, but you walk around it. "And where do you think you're going, kid?"

"To find a safe place to take everyone in time to at least try and hide from the Grievers. Maybe go talk to the Empress to get her on my side. She at least listens to reason." Bro's lips form a hard line, latching a hand on your shirt and turning you to face him.

"Think about what you're doing, kid."

"I have. I've thought about it a lot. And here's a news flash, because you seemed to have forgotten: I'm. Not. A kid." You shove him away and simply walk out of his office, grabbing yours and Karkat's weapons on the way out.

You're more than a little surprised that they allow you to leave, absolutely no human even trying to stop you as you leave. You see Rose and John watching you from the Mews, and Jade peeking out from behind-

_No. Not Jade_, you remind yourself, clenching your teeth angrily and walking right past her. Jade died ages ago; that's nothing but a shell of the girl you'd grown up with.

Karkat glances at her in confusion, then it slowly dawns on him who she is, looking at you with wide eyes. "Is that-?"

"Yes, that's Jade. Was Jade. Whatever."

"What do you mean 'was'? I thought you said a Griever got her."

"A Griever did get her. She hasn't been the same since. And we still don't know why."

"Oh..." Karkat frowns, gripping your hand tighter as the two of you make your way outside. The crowd from earlier has all but dispersed, though several people cast you strange looks. You try to ignore them, but see Karkat hunching up behind you, and send the humans glares to get them to stop. They remarkably listen, and don't bother you until you reach the side gate.

Faster than you can calculate, the two of you are surrounded by what looks like more than half the camp. You tug Karkat behind you again, unsheathing your katana in a flash.

"Dave, calm down. We're not going to hurt you or Karkat." Rose steps out of the crowd, quickly followed by John and Jade. You remain wary, trusting your fellow humans less and less. "We want to know what Karkat meant by migrating. What is migrating?"

"Griever Queens," the red-blood mutters from behind you. You hear the sharp intake of breath from the entire crowd, frowning. Murmurs of panic and fear sweep through the people for a few minutes before Rose regains composure and clears her throat, silencing them.

"Then what's the plan?" You blink in surprise.

"What plan?" You get confused looks from the people before you, a random guy at the back piping up to say,

"The plan to fight them, of course."

* * *

**A/N**: So... Yeah. I don't think I have anything to put down here. Sorry for all the OOC-ness. I couldn't work it any other way and that's one of the reasons this is so bad. T^T I am so sorry. So, so, so very sorry.

~Webs


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